The summer holidays are fast approaching, and there are six long weeks to fill for the kids.
For parents, it’s the nightmare scenario: how do you keep them occupied whilst juggling work and childcare? Fear not! The answer needn’t be (solely) TV or summer clubs – video games are also a great option for both distracting and educating kids while you wait for the long weeks to tick by.
Here’s our roundup of the best new games to play this summer.
Adventure
Tunic
This offers both adventure and puzzles galore. Your hero is a little fox, who sets out to explore a ruined land full of secrets and dangers. The game itself is beautifully designed, the fox is cute, but the real hero is the intelligent puzzle solving and gameplay. The focus is on exploring the world, and on levelling up by collecting pages for Tunic’s in-game manual – while the surprisingly challenging baddies will provide hours of entertainment.
Age rating: PEGI 7
Consoles: PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch
Mineko’s Night Market
They don’t get much cuter – or more low stakes – than this. Billed as a celebration of all things Japanese, it looks gorgeous and (even better) has a very strong cat theme. Our pint-sized hero is Mineko, a young girl who’s just arrived at her new home, an island town at the base of Mount Fugu. The islanders worship the Sun Cat Nikko, and every year there’s a festival in his honour. Long story short, the stage is set for puzzle solving, crafting activities, and slowly restoring the town to its former glory. Very wholesome stuff.
Age rating: PEGI 3
Consoles: PlayStation, PC and Nintendo Switch
Tales of Kenzera: Zau
The themes Tales of Kenzera: Zau deals in are weighty, but the gameplay sure is fun. You play as Zau, a young shaman in an Afrofuturist world whose father recently passed away. Unwilling to accept it, he travels into the spirit realm and undergoes a quest in order to get him back. Ostensibly a 2D Metroidvania, it’s bright and colourful, with challenging baddies and an ever-evolving skill tree, which levels up as Zau explores the different parts of the spirit realm.
Age rating: PEGI 7
Consoles: PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch
Pepper Grinder
No, it’s not about cooking – in this instance, Pepper is a seafaring pirate and Grinder is her trusty super-powered drill. When Pepper is robbed of her treasure, she must burrow through wood and water (and more than a few enemies) to get it back from the pesky Narlings. Given the speed at which you drill, this is a lot more fun than it sounds – and attacking the enemy from underneath them never gets old.
Age rating: PEGI 7
Consoles: Nintendo Switch
Familiar faces
Princess Peach Showtime!
Despite being a Mario mainstay, this is the first game dedicated to Princess Peach. About time! And it’s a joy: when a mysterious villain takes over the Sparkle Theatre, it’s up to Peach to save the day by donning several costumes (each with their own special powers) to restore order. Nintendo know what they’re doing, because the resulting game is engaging, fun and crammed with stuff to do.
Age rating: PEGI 7
Consoles: Nintendo Switch
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
It’s Mario, but cuter than you’ve ever seen him before. This dinky little Nintendo remake of a beloved 1990s original sees the plumber depart on a quest to uncover the secrets of the ancient Thousand-Year Door, recruiting a gang of lovable rogues along the way. It’s got very sweet animations, a script packed with zingers (not normal for a Mario game) and a unique turn-based combat system that makes fighting both unusual and fun. Top marks.
Age rating: PEGI 7
Consoles: Nintendo Switch
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley
This indecently wholesome title is the first Moomin video game in over a decade, and fortunately it delivers everything you’d expect from one. Play as the rebellious spirit of Snufkin, who (armed with his trusty harmonica) set off to restore the nature of Moominvalley when he finds out its been taken over by the park keepers. There’s some gorgeous music in this, easy challenges, and the story is at once sad and uplifting.
Age rating: PEGI 3
Consoles: PC and Nintendo Switch
Team games
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble
This brand-new multiplayer puts the gamer into the shoes of some very sweet monkeys with the aim of locating The Legendary Banana. With both local and online multiplayer modes, players have to work together to find seven mysterious artefacts in the story mode – or just kick back and compete to become Top Banana across a series of minigames.
Age rating: PEGI 3
Consoles: Nintendo Switch
Super Mario Bros: Wonder
This Nintendo favourite picked up several BAFTA Awards this year, and it’s easy to see why. Set in the Mushroom Kingdom, it opens with a typical dastardly coup from Bowser: he seizes control of the Wonder Seeds, which cause all sorts of trippy hallucinations when they’re picked up in levels. It’s a side-scroller, rather than an open world, but each level is so inventive and unique it’s impossible to get bored. Even better, you can play with up to four others for maximum fun.
Age rating: PEGI 3
Consoles: Nintendo Switch
Overcooked 2
OK, so this game is a bit older, but it’s still a goodie, as long as you don’t mind shouting at the television screen for the entire time playing. Set in the Onion Kingdom, an infestation of the Unbread sees your characters set off on a quest to level up their cooking skills and defeat them. The design is cute, but the real killer is the multiplayer element, which requires teams of up to four to work together to cook delicious dishes. It’s fast, funny and furious stuff.
Age rating: PEGI 3
Consoles: Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch
Foamstars
Capitalising on the success of Splatoon comes Foamstars – a generally innocuous PvP shooter game. A Foamstar, in case you were wondering, is somebody who can create foam from their body (how? Nobody knows), which can then be used to complete levels and annihilate the enemy (by covering them in foam, of course). Though the campaign is depressingly short, the multiplayer, which lets up to four play at a time, features several fun minigames, including the excellently named Rubber Duck Party (which is surprisingly vicious) and Happy Bath Survival.
Age rating: PEGI 12
Consoles: PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5
Strategy
Penny’s Big Breakaway
Let’s hear it for the humble yo-yo. No longer confined to school playgrounds, in this game it is a vital tool to achieving success. In the most bonkers way possible, of course. Set in a world that feels like a cross between Sonic and Mario, PBB is a platforming game that stars Penny, an aspiring clownlet who gets in trouble when her yo-yo liberates the Emperor of his clothes (easily done).
Now, she’s being chased around the world by his guards – which is where the yo-yo comes in, allowing you to swing around the map, perform sick combos and generally outfox your pursuers. It’s charming, the levels are engaging and the villains are very unthreatening: all good fun.
Age rating: PEGI 3
Consoles: Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch
Mario vs Donkey Kong
The age-old grudge match continues. This platforming game pits two Nintendo heavyweights against each other – in this instance, Donkey Kong has stolen a whole load of mini Mario toys, and it’s his job to retrieve them. The action is set across different levels, and across several different terrains, all with their unique gimmicks – success a question of strategy and planning. And doesn’t it feel good to give Donkey Kong his due.
Age rating: PEGI 3
Consoles: Nintendo Switch
